Marijuana in the news

By
Dana Larsen
on August 15, 2001

Marijuana has been getting quite a bit of favourable attention in the media over the last few months, and many of those articles have included mention of Cannabis Culture Magazine and interviews with our publisher, Marc Emery.
Maclean’s, Canada’s national weekly newsmagazine, ran an August 6 cover story about the cannabis scene in Canada. The three articles backed liberalizing Canada’s medical marijuana laws, gave a positive profile of Marc Emery, and included a nice photo of the cover of Cannabis Culture #32.

In early August, one of Canada’s two national newpapers, The National Post, ran a lengthy four-part series by Diane Francis about Canada’s marijuana scene, including a profile of Emery called “BC’s ‘Prince of Pot.'”

“I’ve developed a business to finance a revolution,” explained Marc. “I sell marijuana seeds around the world and take these proceeds of crime to subvert the system.”

Canada’s other national paper, The Globe and Mail, ran a July 31 editorial which recommended that Canada “decriminalize small-scale marijuana use entirely, and stop saddling pot-smokers with criminal records that last a lifetime.”

Mexico’s largest newspaper, La Reforma, did a July 28 feature story on Canada’s pot scene, including a photo of Marc Emery and an explanation of why BC bud is so much better than Mexican grass. The Toronto Star picked up on the Mexican article and quoted it with amusement in their August 1 issue.

Marc Emery also publicly offered to supply the Canadian government with seeds for their new medical grow operation in Flin Flon. Although the government refused the offer, it still got much Canadian media attention. A subsequent article in the July 14 Vancouver Sun had Emery explaining why people in BC are “lucky” to have the massive marijuana industry in their province, because of the billions it brings into the economy.

Respected UK magazine The Economist devoted most of their July 26 issue to a lengthy series of articles about alternatives to the failed drug war. The magazine concludes that “a legal market is the best guarantee that drug-taking will be no more dangerous than drinking alcohol or smoking tobacco.”

The August issue of Rolling Stone devoted a large section to the “new coalition” opposing the drug war, including comments about the war on drugs from a wide variety of high-profile people and community leaders.

On August 20 the National Review came out once again in favour of ending the drug war, with an article called “Weed Whackers: the anti-marijuana forces, and why they’re wrong.”